Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

_______ _______ _______ ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. _____ _________ ___________________________ _________________________ 274 ________________________________ AND OVER SEVEN THE UPSTREAM SIDE OF THE BLACKWATER DAM, WHICH HOLDS UP A LAKE OF 3,300,000,000 CUBIC FEET CAPACITY MILES LONG. comparing in size with those of America, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Italy. 3 Th© enterprise which forms the main sub- ject of this article has overcome the difficulty by impounding at a high level the water of a mountain watershed, and so ensuring an its head, on the river Leven, is Kinlochleven, situated amid the wildest of scenery, and yet the site of a great indus- try, for here are established the new works of the British Aluminium Company, opened early in 1909. No chimneys belch volumes of disfiguring smoke, the usual accompani- ment of manufactures—the air is as pure as ever it was, for King Coal does not rule in this industrial village. Following the Leven River 5 J miles from the head of the loch, we __ _ . The Dam. reach, at an elevation of about 1,000 feet above sea-level, a huge dam of concrete, nearly three-quarters of a mile long, stretch- ing from side to side of the valley. It is 80 feet high, and in width tapers from 62 feet at the foundations—sunk into the solid rock —to 10 feet at the top. abundant supply for power requirements from year’s end to year’s end. On the west coast of Scot- land is a broad sea opening named Loch Linnhe, sheltered Kinlochleven. from the open Atlantic by the Island of Mull. Opposite Bal- lachulish the loch bifurcates. One arm, Loch Eil, runs ten miles or so in a north-east- erly direction, and then turns abruptly westwards for an- other ten miles. The other arm, Loch Leven — which must be distinguished from the more famous loch of the same name in Kinross—runs due west. A mile inland from A BRIDGE SECTION OF THE REINFORCED CONCRETE CONDUIT FOR LEADING THE WATER FROM THE DAM TO THE HEAD OF THE PIPE LINES.